


For those who wander

by RadikoolSun



Category: Lovecraft Country (TV), Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Fluff without Plot, Red Riding Hood - Freeform, Romantic Fluff, fairytale AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:13:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27355543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RadikoolSun/pseuds/RadikoolSun
Summary: Tumblr Prompt: Christina listens to ruby after they make love and they’re lying in bed, and ruby talks about how she’d given up on the idea of fairytale love.
Relationships: Christina Braithwhite/Ruby Baptiste, Ruby Baptiste/Christina Braithwhite, Ruby Baptiste/Christina Braithwhite/William
Comments: 28
Kudos: 121





	For those who wander

**Author's Note:**

> Look! I wrote a fluff piece! Wonders will never cease.
> 
> Also shoutout to my beta, Aralia, who fixes my tie before I walk out the door.

“Breathe,” she says, planting wet kisses down the length of Ruby’s spine. It’s a request that feels impossible for her to abide until she does and her lungs release. “Good girl.”

Obscured from Christina’s watchful eye, Ruby’s hands spread out around the pillow she’s clutching. It’s in moments like these, when she has been worshipped to the brink of madness, that she is thankful for the ludicrous number of cushions splayed about the bed. Her eardrums roar victoriously, while the rest of her senses fight to re-assert themselves. There is even a suspicion of tears in her dark eyes, a byproduct of the hours spent under delicious torture. The long fingers inside her wiggle, earning back her attention, before they retract with ease.

“God,” Ruby exhales, squirming at the new emptiness. She misses the exquisite stretch and it makes her clench blindly around nothing.

“Christina’s fine.” She speaks in the self-assured tone of someone who knows that they have just turned their lover inside out. 

Ruby’s skin sings pleasantly through the aftershocks but she still keeps hold of her pillow like an anchor. She sucks in her bottom lip and breaths out again, this time through her nose. It’s a poor attempt to muffle the needy whimpers that seem to have come out of nowhere. Christina’s cat-like grin against the curve of her lower back tells Ruby that she’s been heard regardless. 

Something about being face down, ass up has a tendency to provoke Ruby’s deeper, baser instincts. The ones that have her hollering to the heavens at all hours of the night, demanding Christina tear her apart entirely. And Christina does, every time, if only to be the one to put her back together again. 

When the tip of her cool nose nudges between Ruby’s thighs, she spreads wider, stifling the indignity of it to reach back and encourage deeper kissing, sucking, and all-out devouring. Christina doesn’t stop until Ruby’s brain is liquid and her vision explodes.

——

“You’re insatiable,” Ruby grins, sinking her teeth into the pineapple piece that’s extended towards her. Tender brown eyes arrest blue as she sucks on Christina’s lingering finger, then releases it with a pop. “Are you okay?” 

“I think you may have woken the neighbours this time,” Christina teases, clearing her throat. There will be plenty more time to even the score. 

“Oh and I suppose your over-achieving ass had nothing to do with it,” Ruby throws back. 

“I think you’ll find it was your as-“

Ruby smacks her arm lightheartedly, snickering when a grape jumps out of her grasp. They watch it land with a muted thud, then roll to a stop in the middle of the room.

“You’ll pay for that later,” Christina promises, snatching Ruby’s hand, still mid-air, and playfully gnawing at her fingers. 

Ruby holds her gaze when she strokes the bony knuckle of her thumb until the cool air sends a shiver through her shoulders. The goosebumps only have a second of life before Christina is valiantly pulling the heavy duvet up to Ruby’s chin. They lay side-by-side, facing each other.

“I have something for you,” Ruby murmurs, snuggling into Christina’s solid form. “But you’ll have to get it. I’m stuck here now.” Ruby’s lips tickle against Christina’s neck.

“Oh? Well, I know just the thing to free you.” 

“No-“ Ruby yelps, but it’s too late. Talented fingers that had been hard at work only minutes ago were now wreaking havoc in an entirely different way. Christina continues to tickle her underneath the covers, delighting in the uncontrollable giggles that erupt from Ruby’s throat.

“O-Okay!” she gasps, pushing at Christina’s chest, “I’ll get it.”

She sits up, closes her eyes, and begins muttering repeatedly under her breath. Her face is full of repressed tension, which reveals itself most clearly in the rapid movements of her eyes under her lids. Christina only just about restrains herself from smoothing the crease at Ruby’s brow with her finger.

When the chanting stops, Ruby peers through one eye to search the area around them. She tries not to let the heat of Christina’s gaze unsettle her. 

Christina, for her part, remains silent, watching the bow of Ruby’s lip constrict further in concentration. Just when Ruby‘s about to throw the covers back in defeat, a tan brown package materialises in front of them. The twist in her gut subsides a little.

“You have it,” Christina says, settling her hands on Ruby’s shoulders. She feels Ruby relax under the pressure of her palms. “You just need to exercise patience.” She traces the bridge of Ruby’s nose with the tip of her finger. “Like I currently am.” She glances at the gift left unopened between them, before kissing Ruby‘s nervous smile.

Unlike the rest of the family, Ruby had taken some convincing to be confident in practising magic alone. Not least due to the uncomfortable fact that she was excluded from knowing of its existence in the first place. As usual, she was an afterthought, neglected without the knowledge (like Leti) or disposition (like Tic) to bend magic to her will. Nevertheless, Ruby had accepted that spells and potions would not come to her naturally and she, therefore, works thrice as hard to perfect it.

“Wait, let me,” Ruby fumbles, trying to find the words to explain how she let sentimentality drive her to make such an impulsive purchase. She had been in the book store with Georgie, listening to him recite the new Dr. Seuss, when she saw it. The cashier had looked between herself and Georgie with slight confusion but had left it at that. 

The right words fail her too now, so she tries to delay the inevitable reveal and, subsequent embarrassment a little longer. “What’s the first story you remember reading?” Ruby asks, stalling. 

“The first? The tale of Adam and Eve. The beginning and end of man. My father wanted me to understand the failures of humanity before I could be...compromised.”

“And yet here you are, compromised,” Ruby says, watching the shadows dance across her skin. Christina insists on lighting every candle within reach the instant the sun dips out of sight. 

“Indeed.” Christina hums pressing her lips to the inside of Ruby’s wrist. “And you?”

“Sleeping beauty,” Ruby replies readily. She fiddles with the tape on the package. “I hated that story. She’s a baby for the first half, and asleep for the second. All while strange men try to imprint themselves on her.”

Christina laughs, watching Ruby fold the corner of the wrapping paper back, “That is a rather strange one.” She’s tempted to pry the gift out of Ruby’s grasp, rip it open and relieve her of the anxiety she’s battling with.

“Fairytales in general never sat right with me,” Ruby shrugs in the nonchalant way Christina loves. “That love was a handsome prince, swooping in, promising the world.”

“No, that never happens,” Christina teases. Ruby’s cheeks warm despite her eye-rolling. “Were there any you didn’t despise?” 

Ruby pretends to think for a moment, then smirks. “Red Riding Hood.”

“Of course,” Christina scoffs, poking Ruby’s side through the duvet. She smiles when Ruby tries to bat her hand away.

“Seriously,” Ruby says, “Big Mama used to read it to us all the time before she passed. She’d always re-read the part about going “ _straight to Granny’s”._ Like we didn’t all live in the same damn house.” 

Christina sits up, sensing a shift in her lover’s mood. Her knobbly knees jut out over the covers in a cross-legged position, temporarily exposing Ruby to the coolness of the air. 

“Don’t wander off the beaten path. Don’t talk to strangers. Don’t do this, don’t do that,” Ruby continues, pulling at the covers. “So many rules, because the woods were dangerous.”

Christina imagines Ruby as a child, young, wide-eyed, and brimming with unbridled curiosity. She wonders which was the event that swore enough danger to steal Ruby’s curiosity away. Her chest tightens reflexively.

“It took me a while, but I finally figured it out. “ Ruby goes on, unaware. “The woods _were_ dangerous. The woods were _terrifying_ , but Red wandered anyway. She wandered farther than was thought to be wise. And she found parts of herself along the way.” Ruby’s chestnut eyes twinkle in the flickering candlelight, the growing affection in her voice enough to make Christina’s breath catch. “Parts she never knew existed.”

“When Red finally arrived at Granny’s, she was different. So different, that her own family couldn’t recognise her.” She stares at Christina now, eyes glassy. “The huntsman though, he saw her. He loved who, and what, she was. He wasn’t afraid. He didn’t try to stifle the wildness in her. He tore her free from Granny and encouraged her to wander.”

Ruby places the unwrapped book in Christina’s hands. When Christina looks down at the cover it reads _Little Red Riding Hood_ , and her unshed tears fall free. “I always thought I’d be able to spot the wolf,” Ruby whispers, thoughtfully. “Turns out, it was me.”

Christina caresses the cover reverently as if the stroke of her fingers could disturb the words on the page. When she opens the book, Ruby’s handwriting greets her in bright red ink.

Ruby had learned early on to keep it all hidden, to stay safe from a society that sought to punish her for being her fully realised self. She understood at eight years old keeping her mouth closed and ears open around adults twice her size could be the difference between life and very painful death. She knew not to dream too big or, veer too far from the lifestyle expected from a woman like her. Until one faithful night, when she was at the end of her tether, disillusioned and fed up with the world, a blue-eyed huntsman walked into a bar. 

____

“ _To feel free in love is the greatest magic of all._ ”

—

**Author's Note:**

> Thinking about writing a proper Red Riding Hood/Fairytale AU based on this.
> 
> Thank you for reading, let me know what you think :)


End file.
